(1st Time SLI User) SLI GTX 960 PALiT JetStream 4GB - Benchmarks & Thoughts

[...PACMAN...]

"What's that noise?"

"I can't hear anything"

"I know, isn't it marvellous "

Let me start by saying MAN are these cards quiet!!! No coil whine and the fans are whisper quiet even when the cards are fully utilized and that, my friends, is a wonderful thing. My PC resides in my living room, just next to my TV which it's hooked up to and if these babies had been loud the boss would have had me move into the cold, scary basement......in the middle of Autumn.

No camera at the moment as the boss is away with the in laws but here's a picture from the web of the card(s)

They have some nice white LEDs on the fans which look pretty awesome and the shade of red actually ties in with my Gaming 5 mobo quite well Triple slot design but sadly no overvoltage capability from what I can see (Unless someone can fill me in otherwise?? Please....??

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TEST SYSTEM

4690k@4.5Ghz (1.23v)
Hyper 212 Evo
MSI Z97 Gaming 5
8gb (2x4Gb) Gskill Trident @ 2400Mhz CL 10
2 x PALiT GTX 960 JetStream 4GB @ 1428/3705
Kingston V300 120Gb SSD (os) , Seagate 1Tb (Games)
Onboard HDMI Audio
Corsair RM 750i

Nvidia Drivers - 359.00
Default Settings in Nvidia Control Panel other than enabling SLI, RGB Full Range

Also set a custom resolution with CRU of 1920 x 1080@60Hz due to the 59Hz issue (seriously, we have to deal with this shit again?? lol) Primarily a HDMI issue.

All carried out on a fresh install of Windows 10 Pro (Threshold 2)​

NOTE -

The benchmarks are very rudimentary (no 0.1% low analysis going on here) but instead it'll be a mix of AVG or MIN/AVG/MAX.

I've never used SLI before so mistakes may have been made, for that I apologize, but ask that you enlighten me on the correct way of doing things - I'm never too proud to learn from someone else.

There's not a major amount of recent AAA games in my possession unfortunately, so it's a mix of TPU's downloadable benchmarks from yesteryear plus synthetic benchmarks tonight and some hardcore frapping (Pornhub in SLI vision you ask?? NO!!) on games from my own Steam/Origin/Uplay collection which I'll post tomorrow at some point. Anyone who wishes to donate a Witcher 3 here or a Star Wars Battlefront there....be my guest

Let's get it on.....

SYNTHETIC BENCHMARKS
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Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0 1080p Fullscreen|DX11 Custom|Ultra Quality|Extreme Tesellation|8xAA|

Single 960 (1428/3705) FPS 34.6
Score 872
MIN FPS 21.1
MAX FPS 77.4

SLI 960 (1428/3705) FPS 68.1
Score 1714
MIN FPS 34.6
MAX FPS 150.6
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Unigine Valley Benchmark 1.0 1080p Fullscreen|DX11 Custom|Ultra Quality|4xAA

Single 960 (1428/3705) FPS 47.4
Score 1984
MIN FPS 27.2
MAX FPS 85.4

SLI 960 (1428/3705) FPS 91.7
Score 3835
MIN FPS 39.9
MAX FPS 176.6
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3DMark 11 Performance Preset (720p)

Single 960 (1428/3705) Score P 10446

SLI 960 (1428/3705) Score P 15609
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3DMark Firestrike v1.1

Single 960 (1428/3705) Score 6962

SLI 960 (1428/3705) Score 11047

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IN GAME BENCHMARKS
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Tomb Raider 2013(In Game Benchmark)1080p|Ultimate Preset|16xAF/FXAA|Tress FX enabled|

Single 960 (1428/3705) MIN 44.6 fps
AVG 64.4
MAX 80.0

SLI 960 (1428/3705) MIN 92.0 fps
AVG 123.9
MAX 154.0
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Mafia 2(In Game Benchmark)1080p|MAX Settings||16xAF/Antialiasing On|Physx High

Single 960 (1428/3705) AVG 68.3 fps

SLI 960 (1428/3705) AVG 85.4 fps
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Dirt Showdown(In Game Benchmark)1080p|Ultra Preset|4xMSAA|Adv Lighting ON & Global Illumination ON|

Single 960 (1428/3705) MIN 71.42 fps
AVG 91.34

SLI 960 (1428/3705) MIN 114.55 fps
AVG 145.41
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Just Cause 2(In Game Benchmark(s))1080p|MAX Settings|Motion Blur ON|16xAF/4xMSAA|Nvidia Effects ON

Single 960 (1428/3705) Dark Tower AVG 81.20 fps
Desert Sunrise AVG 95.26
Concrete Jungle AVG 70.14

SLI 960 (1428/3705) Dark Tower AVG 150.89 fps
Desert Sunrise AVG 173.85
Concrete Jungle AVG 115.80
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Hitman Absolution(In Game Benchmark)1080p|Ultra Preset|16xAF/4xMSAA+FXAA|

Single 960 (1428/3705) MIN 32.0 fps
AVG 40.8
MAX 100.00

SLI 960 (1428/3705) MIN 66.0 fps
AVG 80.05
MAX 106.00
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Sleeping Dogs Original Edition(In Game Benchmark)1080p|MAX Settings|HD Texture Pack|Extreme AA|

Single 960 (1428/3705) MIN 28.6 fps
AVG 48.8
MAX 68.5

SLI 960 (1428/3705) MIN 56.3 fps
AVG 94.8
MAX 153.9
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Arkham Origins(In Game Benchmark)1080p|MAX DX11 Settings|16xAF(ini edit)/4xMSAA|Physx HIGH

Single 960 (1428/3705) MIN 44 fps
AVG 56
MAX 91

SLI 960 (1428/3705) MIN 44 fps
AVG 75
MAX 118
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Arkham City(In Game Benchmark)1080p|MAX DX11 Settings|16xAF (ini edit)/4xMSAA|Physx HIGH

Single 960 (1428/3705) MIN 40 fps
AVG 77
MAX 100

SLI 960 (1428/3705) MIN 57 fps
AVG 108
MAX 179
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Total War Shogun 2(In Game Benchmark)1080p|DX11 MAX Settings|16xAF/4xMSAA|Shader Model 5

Single 960 (1428/3705) AVG 64.8 fps

SLI 960 (1428/3705) AVG 116.9 fps
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TPU Download Benchmarks
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Call Of Pripyat Benchmark(TPU Download)1080p|

Settings Used

Single 960 (1428/3705)

SLI 960 (1428/3705)

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Resident Evil 5 Benchmark(TPU Download)1080p|DX10 MAX Settings|4xMSAA|Motion Blur ON

Single 960 (1428/3705) Variable Benchmark Area 1 220.3 fps Fixed Benchmark AVG 201.7 fps
Area 2 203.3
Area 3 185.3
Area 4 204.0
AVG 201.7

SLI 960 (1428/3705) Variable Benchmark Area 1 397 fps Fixed Benchmark AVG 201.2 fps
Area 2 280
Area 3 287.5
Area 4 292.5
AVG 306.7
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Resident Evil 6 Benchmark(TPU Download)1080p|MAX Settings|FXAA3HQ|

Single 960 (1428/3705) 12,683

SLI 960 (1428/3705) 20,292
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Final Fantasy XIV:A Realm Reborn Benchmark(TPU Download)1080p Fullscreen
|MAXIMUM Preset|16xAF/FXAA|

Single 960 (1428/3705) 10,270

SLI 960 (1428/3705) 17,878
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Final Fantasy XIV:Heavensward Benchmark(TPU Download)1080p Fullscreen
|DX11 MAXIMUM Preset|16xAF/FXAA|

Single 960 (1428/3705) 7,786

SLI 960 (1428/3705) 14,791
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Now THAT is the way to spend a lazy Saturday

In game fraps logs tomorrow including Alan Wake,Assassin's Creed 4:Black Flag,Splinter Cell:Blacklist,Crysis, Crysis Warhead, Crysis 2, Crysis 3,GTA V, Battlefield 3,Skyrim (Single & Multiplayer),FIFA 16 and a whole heap more. I'll also give my pros and cons and that should round it all up.

So far I'm extremely impressed and the only game/benchmarks that have been unspectacular are the Batman Arkham games. Both displayed stuttering in SLI on my setup whereas with a single card they are smooth and stutter free.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Impressive testing results!!

I look forward to the remainder of the games.

 

[ASOT]

Hehe,i scored 910 on Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0 1080p Fullscreen/DX11 Custom/Ultra Quality/Extreme Tesellation/8xAA with my PC Specs

 

[...PACMAN...]

Hehe,i scored 910 on Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0 1080p Fullscreen/DX11 Custom/Ultra Quality/Extreme Tesellation/8xAA with my PC Specs

And so you should my dear fellow, the 280X is the slightly stronger card and Heaven is primarily GPU based......now try running some CPU benchmarks and come back to me

 

[ASOT]

And so you should my dear fellow, the 280X is the slightly stronger card and Heaven is primarily GPU based......now try running some CPU benchmarks and come back to me

It was just a "mention",we all know games are important to GPU,especially!

Definitely slower in CPU bench's,but my purpose is to a have a PC & play games,not to see all day bench's and compare..
And for sure it can do the same think like other's super CPU'S..
So my purpose of use my rig is to play..games,social media,music,movies..internet surfing @ all-in one about entertainment is!
PS: I pick best part's on my tight budget,GG

 

[...PACMAN...]

It was just a "mention",we all know games are important to GPU,especially!

Definitely slower in CPU bench's,but my purpose is to a have a PC & play games,not to see all day bench's and compare..
And for sure it can do the same think like other's super CPU'S..
So my purpose of use my rig is to play..games,social media,music,movies..internet surfing @ all-in one about entertainment is!
PS: I pick best part's on my tight budget,GG

Hey man chill, it's all about games for me as well.

Don't derail the thread though, thanks for dropping by.

 

[ASOT]

Hey man chill, it's all about games for me as well.

Don't derail the thread though, thanks for dropping by.

I'm ok bro,not a hater or else..
Goodluck with u'r new SLI's and play alot of games,cya

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Im loving this, ive got @...PACMAN... on steam, everytime he changes a game it changes on my screen, i cant sleep, ive been thinking hes been like some some sort of psycho fweak from hell the testing hes been doing,

Good on yer Paccers

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

shit, sorry to double post , but are you really doing all that tmrw

im worse ive restarted and BSOD probably 20 times in the last 2 days benching for records

 

[GreiverBlade]

see, you are better off with a 960 4gb SLI than a single 970 3.5gb

my heaven 4.0 score are 1776, latest run no OC with my 980 tho my official score is 1978 with a 1643/1948 clocks, and a 4690K not the actual 6600K i run now (100mhz more in clocking with the H-DC, same as you in fact, 4,5ghz) tho that might change ... my current win 7 Pro is almost 2yrs old and lot's of hardware swap and only dirty swap (to make it worse, even some AMD to intel to AMD to intel swaps ahah ) and i just received (yesterday) a OEM win 8.1 package ... (and since i know all my games and software run fine on 8.1, thanks to my Alpha, i finally want to move to it)
the only single card real upgrade/sidegrade would have been a 980 and not a 970

happy for you mate

and nice review

 

[...PACMAN...]

shit, sorry to double post , but are you really doing all that tmrw

im worse ive restarted and BSOD probably 20 times in the last 2 days benching for records

No, I'm not now....it's going to be delayed. GF coming home early, dammit Results should be finished by mid-week.

@GreiverBlade - Thanks for the kind words buddy, I'm seriously thinking about changing up to Skylake or X99, from what I have seen these cards are more than enough for me at the moment. Huge backlog of older games and a few newer ones which I can now happily play with ease.

I do have to say, there's still some oomph left in the tank. Some utilization was lower than expected when testing which makes me think they are being held back ever so slightly by my 4690k. It's very minimal, but also they are only running at 8x8@3.0. I know Wiz reviewed PCIe bottlenecking only recently and commented about some titles swapping information over the bus.

Do you think a slightly higher clocked 4790k would suffice or should it be a 6700k or maybe even an X99 behemoth?

 

[GreiverBlade]

Do you think a slightly higher clocked 4790k would suffice or should it be a 6700k or maybe even an X99 behemoth?

if my 4690K didn't fried during a lightning-storm i would still have it and hold till the next generation after Skylake, even if i thought about going SLI 980

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

@...PACMAN...

watching you......at 3.30 am, your sleep patterns are worse than mine

 

[...PACMAN...]

Update

No more testing to be done, I liked SLI that much that I have sold the 960's and got an MSI GTX 970 OC with a view to adding another in a month or two. I needed stronger single card performance in the rare games that have issues with SLI or poor utilization.

This 970 is a nice one though. Does 1560 on the core with no added voltage and remains silent. Very, very slight coil whine when fps on menus is up to ludicrous numbers, nothing that would effect everyday gaming with vsync on!! Did a valley run and it would have taken top spot for a single 970 on TPU

Tested it on Mordor and GTA V.....no stutter above 3.5Gb so that's kind of interesting.

 

[Toothless]

I did what you did but skipped a step. I was going for a GTX660 SLI but everyone was like "omgnostahp"

So I got a GTX780 for an amazing price (you know who you are ) and was like omg dis is smexy. But then I saw another great 780, same as my current, and drove for it. (you too you smexy beast who sold it to me)

tl;dr 780 is around to par with 970 and 780SLI is an orgasm in itself.

 

[GreiverBlade]

Update

No more testing to be done, I liked SLI that much that I have sold the 960's and got an MSI GTX 970 OC with a view to adding another in a month or two. I needed stronger single card performance in the rare games that have issues with SLI or poor utilization.

This 970 is a nice one though. Does 1560 on the core with no added voltage and remains silent. Very, very slight coil whine when fps on menus is up to ludicrous numbers, nothing that would effect everyday gaming with vsync on!! Did a valley run and it would have taken top spot for a single 970 on TPU

Tested it on Mordor and GTA V.....no stutter above 3.5Gb so that's kind of interesting.

single card performance that does not reach a 960 SLI ... you plan to add a second within a month or two and use as an excuse "a few game with SLI issue" well ... a 980 would have been more fit, and if you could sell the 960 for a good price (4gb version to add more to it) the difference to a 980 might have been not that high (specially if you looked at some deal or even 2nd hands )

i am sad now oh well if you go 970 SLI you might have a single card ... since "2 broken arms might do a full arm" (tho the correct sentence is "2 broken arm does not make a full arm")
970 ... how can one consider that joke of a card as a viable option yes yes i know ... "you are fine most of the time, not many game need more than 3.5gb vRAM." still ... it's a issue that can surface and even more if you go SLI and later a higher resolution monitor(who know), hence the non acknowledgement of that card from myself (specially at the price asked ... a R9-380/380X/390 are better contenders )

tl;dr 780 is around to par with 970 and 780SLI is an orgasm in itself.

well yes ... a 3gb 780 is on par with a "4gb" 970 indeed


as for @...PACMAN... in the end as long as you are happy with your card : that's the essential

Tested it on Mordor and GTA V.....no stutter above 3.5Gb so that's kind of interesting.

i just noticed, well funny enough ... tho it might be a different case ... that's purely impossible that a 970 has no issue above 3.5gb usage ... that or you don't see them
which is itself an advantage i had the same issue with a phone that was so bad in all people's mind but since i liked it and saw no default the other people mentioned (or didn't wanted to see and take them in account i should say) i was staying on a defensive position about it and refuted all issues that were mentioned (albeit clearly visible proof of them being there)

 

[...PACMAN...]

single card performance that does not reach a 960 SLI ... you plan to add a second within a month or two and use as an excuse "a few game with SLI issue" well ... a 980 would have been more fit, and if you could sell the 960 for a good price (4gb version to add more to it) the difference to a 980 might have been not that high (specially if you looked at some deal or even 2nd hands )

i am sad now oh well if you go 970 SLI you might have a single card ... since "2 broken arms might do a full arm" (tho the correct sentence is "2 broken arm does not make a full arm")
970 ... how can one consider that joke of a card as a viable option yes yes i know ... "you are fine most of the time, not many game need more than 3.5gb vRAM." still ... it's a issue that can surface and even more if you go SLI and later a higher resolution monitor(who know), hence the non acknowledgement of that card from myself (specially at the price asked ... a R9-380/380X/390 are better contenders )


well yes ... a 3gb 780 is on par with a "4gb" 970 indeed


as for @...PACMAN... in the end as long as you are happy with your card : that's the essential

980 was too much of a stretch (the boss had her say) but then again the 970 is also not struggling in the games where the 3.5Gb is supposedly an issue so I'm happy with that. Couple with that the fantastic no added voltage free overclock I'm getting on this card, all whilst running cool and silent and I'm a very happy Pacman.

On top of all this, they added two game coupons by mistake instead of the one so I'll be selling a copy of Rainbow Siege on here later which also means I'll have got the 970 for a lot less than spending out on a 980.

 

[GreiverBlade]

980 was too much of a stretch (the boss had her say) but then again the 970 is also not struggling in the games where the 3.5Gb is supposedly an issue so I'm happy with that. Couple with that the fantastic no added voltage free overclock I'm getting on this card, all whilst running cool and silent and I'm a very happy Pacman.

On top of all this, they added two game coupons by mistake instead of the one so I'll be selling a copy of Rainbow Siege on here later which also means I'll have got the 970 for a lot less than spending out on a 980.

selling ... a free coupon ... HAVE YOU NO SHAME! DO A GIVEAWAY YOU LITTLE [CENSORED]!


(also notice my edit about the 3.5gb) oh well one recommendation don't go SLI with the 970, when you will be in need of more power : SELL that 970 for a fair price (start to do a "fund" account aside) and take a 980/980Ti, plan it on the long run, in 1 or two month you might have enough to do it if you add the reselling of the 970

funny for me if i had 2 960 4gb and resold them at the current 2nd hand price 1 new 1 less new, i would have enough to buy a reference 980 while if i sell a 970 with 1-2 month of use i would have to add 140chf for achieving the same

 

[...PACMAN...]

selling ... a free coupon ... HAVE YOU NO SHAME! DO A GIVEAWAY YOU LITTLE [CENSORED]!


(also notice my edit about the 3.5gb) oh well one recommendation don't go SLI with the 970, when you will be in need of more power : SELL that 970 for a fair price (start to do a "fund" account aside) and take a 980/980Ti, plan it on the long run, in 1 or two month you might have enough to do it if you add the reselling of the 970

funny for me if i had 2 960 4gb and resold them at the current 2nd hand price 1 new 1 less new, i would have enough to buy a reference 980 while if i sell a 970 with 1-2 month of use i would have to add 140chf for achieving the same

I've done a giveaway, have you !!

I have no reason to lie. It's not impossible for the 970 to not display the issue (double negative anyone) Plenty of others have had the same results. I am EXTREMELY sensitive to low fps/jitter/stuttering. I believe it has something to do with the memory subsystem in use. I have 2400 ram @CL10, add to that an SSD with my pagefile on it and a CPU at 4.5ghz. Windows 10 also alleviates/placates the VRAM allocation issues as well and I believe Nvidia have optimized drivers enough in the past few months to make it a non issue.

I can actually go OVER 4Gb on GTA V and it's still no issue

 

[neatfeatguy]

Update

No more testing to be done, I liked SLI that much that I have sold the 960's and got an MSI GTX 970 OC with a view to adding another in a month or two. I needed stronger single card performance in the rare games that have issues with SLI or poor utilization.

This 970 is a nice one though. Does 1560 on the core with no added voltage and remains silent. Very, very slight coil whine when fps on menus is up to ludicrous numbers, nothing that would effect everyday gaming with vsync on!! Did a valley run and it would have taken top spot for a single 970 on TPU

Tested it on Mordor and GTA V.....no stutter above 3.5Gb so that's kind of interesting.

I run Mordor at 2K resolution using DSR and I max out the 6GB VRAM on my 980Ti. Generally the VRAM runs around 4.5-5.5GB, depending on everything that's going on in the game. I've even had Windows 7 cry at me with a popup messaging saying that the system was low on RAM with long sessions running Mordor if it constantly runs at 6GB. I haven't ran the game on my native 1080p resolution, so I don't know how much VRAM the game will use at that resolution.

I'd strongly suggest picking up a single GTX 980Ti or going with a Fury if you wanted AMD's high end card over running 2 970s in SLI. You're going to spend about the same (or mayb even less) on a single 980Ti/Fury as you would on 2 970s.

 

[...PACMAN...]

I'll consider that when I have the funds for a 2nd 970, thanks for the info

 

[newtekie1]

Tested it on Mordor and GTA V.....no stutter above 3.5Gb so that's kind of interesting.

It's pretty amazing isn't it? How all these people that have never even owned a 970 will go on and on about how the stuttering is soooo terrible when you go over 3.5GB, and you don't really see any actual 970 owners, people with 970s in their listed specs, saying it... Funny how that works.

And why not go with 970 SLI? At 4K, it is 14% faster than a Fury X, and 18% faster than a 980Ti. At 2K, it is 22% faster than both the 980Ti and Fury X. The 970 SLI option offers significantly better performance per dollar than both the Fury X and 980Ti at both 2k and 4k, and it actually offers better performance too. That's actually pretty rare. Usually the higher the performance, the worse the performance per dollar...

 

[GreiverBlade]

It's pretty amazing isn't it? How all these people that have never even owned a 970 will go on and on about how the stuttering is soooo terrible when you go over 3.5GB, and you don't really see any actual 970 owners, people with 970s in their listed specs, saying it... Funny how that works.

well ... my friend who has a 970 in his 4690K build has them ... i am talking about those, knowing the problem, so i am out of that, i suspect the allocated RAM is also doing a difference in the equation (texture swap, high speed RAM, aka: above 1600 for DDR3)
also i notice more people complaining that own a 970 you are the only 2 i saw that say "nope all is fine", framerate problems ... that is ... i saw it in RSI (star citizen forum) WG (wargaming.net) WT (warthunder) and some other forums.

And why not go with 970 SLI? At 4K, it is 14% faster than a Fury X, and 18% faster than a 980Ti. At 2K, it is 22% faster than both the 980Ti and Fury X. The 970 SLI option offers significantly better performance per dollar than both the Fury X and 980Ti at both 2k and 4k, and it actually offers better performance too. That's actually pretty rare. Usually the higher the performance, the worse the performance per dollar...

well that's right tho you get the SLI issues in addition, single card over dual, 14-18% and 22% is worth for a price equivalence indeed tho @...PACMAN... has some game with SLI issues (if the price are the same as where i live tho.)

tho i am still happy that you find the card fine and have no problems.

 

[...PACMAN...]

well ... my friend who has a 970 in his 4690K build has them ... i am talking about those, knowing the problem, so i am out of that, i suspect the allocated RAM is also doing a difference in the equation (texture swap, high speed RAM, aka: above 1600 for DDR3)
also i notice more people complaining that own a 970 you are the only 2 i saw that say "nope all is fine", framerate problems ... that is ... i saw it in RSI (star citizen forum) WG (wargaming.net) WT (warthunder) and some other forums.


well that's right tho you get the SLI issues in addition, single card over dual, 14-18% and 22% is worth for a price equivalence indeed tho @...PACMAN... has some game with SLI issues (if the price are the same as where i live tho.)

tho i am still happy that you find the card fine and have no problems.

@GreiverBlade It is strange that some people have the issue and others don't but then take ten gaming PC's and ask each person if they can play Arkham Knight without stutter and bad framedrops and again you would probably get a good mix, it's the nature of the platform. Yeh I had issues with the Arkham Games in SLI and also Crysis (but not every level) , it really only affected the VTOL level and other levels displayed great utilization. Unfortunately, I like to have a stutter free experience whilst gaming else it breaks my immersion. A single 970 is pushing over 60 minimum on those titles (stock overclock) so I'm already happy.

@newtekie1 Are you on Windows 10 at all ? (I see Windows 8 in your specs but sometimes I'm too lazy to update them as well) I have found slight hitching on Windows 10 in some games, even at good frame rates and well below the 3.5Gb supposed threshold. Windows 7 is flawless however with exactly the same settings, overclock etc. I'm thinking it's just a simple combination of drivers (Chipset,MEI,Intel RST and graphic drivers)

I'd love to use Windows 10 as my 24/7 but it does display some issues for myself not apparent in Windows 7, if anyone can chime in with which drivers they are using on the 1150 platform with Windows 10 and whether it's smooth or not....may have to create another thread

 

[Jetster]

You tied my 980 in Heaven 4.0 with everything stock